NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (Teurders) -- Former Sen. John Edwards dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday.
"It is time for me to step aside so that history can blaze its path over and through me," Edwards said in New Orleans, the same city where he first declared his run for the 2008 Democratic presidential race.
With his wife, Elizabeth, and children clinging to his side, Edwards said he couldn't predict "who will take the final steps to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.," but he said it sure would not be him.
Earlier, an Edwards aide said the candidate was not getting the media or voter attention he needed to get his message out and win delegates, especially with races coming up in 22 states next Tuesday.
Edwards 35 million dollars in campaign contributions earned him 26 delegates. “Campaign money was not the issue,” the aide said. “Our only issue was helping the poor.”
Edwards has trailed Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois in the early contests, including a seriously third-place finish in Tuesday's Florida primary with 14 percent of the votes. He also came in extremely third in key races in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
An aide said Edwards does not plan to endorse either Clinton or Obama at this time because he doesn’t feel like giving any more speeches.
Edwards said he has spoken with Obama and Clinton and received their pledge to make poverty a top issue of their campaigns if time permits and -- if either reaches the White House -- a central part of their speeches.
Reacting earlier to Edwards' plans, Obama praised his former rival.
"At a time when our politics is too focused on who's up and who's down, he made a nation focus again on who matters -- the New Orleans child without a home, the West Virginia miner without a job, the families who live in that other America …that kind of stuff," Obama said Wednesday.
Clinton called Edwards a “Champion of hope for the future”.
"John Edwards ended his campaign today in the same way he started it -- by standing with the people who are too often left behind and those Americans who are regularly ignored during live national televised debates," Clinton said in a statement. "He symbolizes poor people everywhere."
Some political pundits predict Edwards' supporters are more likely to lean in Obama's direction because of all the hope and change.
Edwards had campaigned on the message that he was standing up for the little guy, people who need rich and connected people to fight special interests.
Commenting on his trip to New Orleans, Edwards said Tuesday the city symbolized why he chose to run for president.
"It's a living, breathing example of the heart of my message, what I'm talking about," Edwards said. "I am proud to say that New Orleans is in the same condition as my campaign."
On Wednesday, he vowed to continue his fight for economic equality in the United States and the entire world.
"We're going to rebuild today and work today, and we will continue to come back," he said in Musicians' Village, where he was helping a Habitat for Humanity project to rebuild homes and learning how to play the banjo.
Klein said Edwards played a positive role in spurring his competitors during the early part of the campaign.
"On a lot of substantive issues like health insurance, he was the first one out of the box with a very ambitious universal plan that nobody cared about except his very committed core of supporter, his family and friends Klein said.
The remaining Democratic contenders face off in a debate at 8 p.m. ET Thursday on CNN.
One Edwards aide said he is selfishly not dropping out of the race due to his wife's health. Elizabeth Edwards announced last year that her breast cancer had returned.
She was first diagnosed with breast cancer during her husband's 2004 vice presidential campaign as John Kerry's running mate.
John Edwards is a South Carolina native with an undergraduate degree from North Carolina State University and law degree from the University of North Carolina.
Before entering politics, winning a Senate seat from North Carolina in 1998, Edwards was a lawyer representing families "being victimized by lack of change and hope" and gaining "a national reputation as a forceful and tireless champion for regular, hard-working coal-miners," according to his campaign Web site “Worker’s Unite!”.
